Julian Temple Band Tour, Jan-Feb 2010

As my computer crapped out on me a few days before going on tour, I wasn’t able to update my blog while on the road. Dumb. As a result, I’ll just do a quick recap on the 4 weeks I did touring doing live sound with the Julian Temple Band this summer.

The Julian Temple Band like to tour in a way that maximises enjoyment. This means plenty of stop-offs for surfing, bakery sampling, and boutique brewery tastings, along with the usual tour highlights of regular alcohol and drug abuse. I was in high heaven. While this sometimes was at the expensive of punctuality with showing up for soundchecks and other various music related tasks, the fellas in the band didn’t seem concerned, and as I was just the sound guy, I didn’t give a rats arse.

If you’ve ever seen the movie Sideways, you’ll get an idea of the general vibe and feeling of the tour.

Here are a few highlights…

- Eating the most delicious meal ever, and hanging out with the hilarious bar staff at The Powder Room in New Plymouth.

So. Delicious.

-Watching Billy T.K. at Parihaka. He was probably the only act I enjoyed at the festival, but holy shit did he make up for it. If you ever have the opportunity see this guy play, make sure you do. You won't regret it. He dubs himself "The Maori Jimi Hendrix."

An old press photo of Billy T.K.

- Having a 70 yr old gay man asking me if I had a “stiffy” outside the Lounge Bar in Carterton. Naturally all the locals in the bar knew the guy, didn't warn me about this character, and found the whole episode (which lasted longer than it should have) hilarious.

The lounge bar during daytime, sans creepy old men.

- Raglan. The owner Peter Coddington is a legend. Forget all the other Raglan venues, and stick to the Yot Club.

The Yot Club

- Tutakaka. One of the more beautiful parts of the country, on the east coast of Northland. We played at a bar/restaurant called Schnappa Rock. I've never witnessed the wealthy Northland locals/tourists combo in a live music situation before, which was a nice novelty. It was also the gig we had the smallest PA, and ironically one of the more pumping dance floors. The staff treated us brilliantly as well.

A beach near Tutukaka.

- Playing for a rich Aucklander’s 21^st at the Juice Bar in Parnell. It was fuckin’ weird. It reminded me of a cross between “My Super Sweet 16” and “The Hills”.

Canadia playing support at the Juice Bar.

- Having the please of playing The Mussel Inn in Golden Bay. The Mussel Inn is probably the best venue in the country, period. Beautiful site, great on-site brews, decent PA, amazing accommodation, and lovely people. It's no wonder they're booked out all this year, and a decent chunk of next year already.

One half of the brains behind the Mussel Inn, Andrew.

Paul playing awesome at the Mussel.

Some stink things that happened that I should mention...

- Running out of gas on the long drive from Carterton to Auckland... Thank fuck for Scott having an AA members card. Never go on tour without one fellas.

- Getting 2 guitars, and a bunch of PA equipment nicked out of our truck in Auckland. That really sucked.

- Having a gig cancelled on us 2 days beforehand. FYI The Marahau Park Café is no longer having gigs. It’s a bit of a long, stupid story, but ask me about it in person one day and I’ll give you the full drama of how the Julian Temple Band got slightly screwed over by them.

That aside I had a really awesome time, and I have to extend thanks to Jules, Paul, Scott, and Levi (aka Ferris Bueller) for having me. Cheers fellas!

The Night Before, The Night Before Christmas, Dunedin Style.

On the 23rd of December, I did sound for a pretty big gig at Sammy's, in Dunedin, organised by the guys from Retrophonic Funk Machine (RFM). It was the first musical thing I had done since being back from the UK, and I was reminded of a few classic "quirks" of trying to play live in New Zealand.

The first quirk with live gigs in New Zealand is that quite often they don't happen in venues where gigs are held all the time, meaning that often lots of sound and light equipment needs to be hired in at great expense (usually to the musicians wanting to play). Strangely enough, this is half-true with Sammy's. Sammy's has gigs all the time, however their equipment is worn out, and kind of incomplete. To get the gig to run smoothly, RFM had to hire in a whole other PA system and lighting rig. Usually this would be extremely expensive, but this amazing dude called Iain Sweetman agreed to hire his gear, and his awesome services for stuff all cash. Still kinda sucks we couldn't use the house gear, but hey!

The second quirk is related to the first. Soundchecks, or anything related to the preperation of a gig, often run well off schedule, and way over time. Iain and myself were meant to be loading in at 12 noon, for a 2pm soundcheck. This is what we found when we arrived at 12.

The true nightmare before the night before the night before Christmas

Yep that's right. Sammy's was full of bouncy castles, and there were a bunch of little kids screaming around. We found out that it was going to be like this till 5pm! Argh! So Iain and I loaded in what we could, and rushed the soundcheck and everything else once the kids, and the bouncy castles were removed later on.

Anyways onto the positives. I was well impressed by the majority of the bands, and the awesome sense of community amongst them. It was also really great for me to see how far the bands that I knew well had come in a year, and a great opportunity for me to hear some new ones as well.

RFM

RFM busted out some pretty great collaborations with the support bands, highlights for me being the ones with The Something Quartet (who I hadn't seen before, and are awesome!), and The Julian Temple Band. If Sammy's was a bit better prepared, it would have been one of the better gigs I'd ever worked! Choice!

The Something Quartet, featuring RFM, Tono, and a boys choir.

The Julian Temple Band

Now that I've quit my job....

I can post these astounding clips I found on the work media server. They both feature work from the same student, who will remain nameless. The pieces of "work" were submitted to the GCSE (5th form) examiners as his final pieces of assessment.

The first piece is his solo performance piece. The music you hear at the start is him playing an R&B track from his cellphone, into a microphone. Then you can hear him playing the drum kit over the top.

Drum Performance

The second is his composition piece. He can't claim any marks for the backing track, which was done by other member of staff, who is actually a pretty decent London dubstep producer. I believe he just found a rap track he liked, and told the guy, "make it sound like, sick, like dis one, like, innit!" or something to that effect. However he DID compose and perform the rap, which is, truly amazing. Enjoy.

Oh Baby

The Outsiders @ The Windmill

A few months ago, Stu Young from The Outsiders asked me if I could organise them a gig in London for them. I put the feelers out around a bunch of promoters, and had a decent response. Because cash for them was a priority, I went for the venue which did the best deal: The Windmill (They’re one of the few venues in London which will let bands take the full amount on the door…).

So yeah they were joined by the Fulang, and a new band called “Spike The Punch,” which I understand features some of the members from NZ punk band Missing Teeth. The Fulang were comfortably the band that stuck out like a sore thumb, and some of the filthy old punks didn’t seem that impressed with our sound. Nevertheless a big bunch of our friends all came out to support The Outsiders, which was really awesome. They took a big risk coming over to Europe to tour, and I think it worked out pretty well for them. They played really well, and it was awesome seeing Stu and Niam again.

The Outsiders

In other (now old) fulang news, Anthony had to go home about a month ago, due to some pretty stink family reasons. Matt Brook did the decent thing and played bass for us at the show, after only two practices! He played really well, and I was well proud of him.

Matt stepping up to the plate

This guy taught me at university.

Okay so Dr. Ian Chapman lectured me during my time at music school at the University of Otago.

Here's his new music video. Holy! What's up with Dunedin having glam scene all of a sudden?

And here's my newest favourite video courtesy of the world wide web. This guy didn't lecture thank god.

Gigs, gigs, gigs

Okay so it's been awhile since I last blogged. Apologies.

Anyway the fulang have played a bunch of gigs in that time, some brilliant (Rip This Joint All-Dayer), some shit (Up All Night Music shows), some in-between.

I can't really be bothered talking about the shit nights we've played this time around, apart from explaining that our gig at Tommy Flynn's was a soul-less, non-cohesive, rip-off of a gig. It was run by Up All Night Music, a booking/"promo" company. Basically they just get a bunch of random bands together which sound nothing alike, are usually shit, and make them play at the same night. The bands get ripped off, and in turn, so do the audience. Doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, onto a more positive note. We got the awesome opportunity to play at an all-dayer run by the Rip This Joint promoters. Rip This Joint are a collective of a few bands who put on nights at the Constitution in Camden. We played one of their nights a few months ago, and have been in touch with them ever since. They basically do the opposite of Up All Night et. all, which is put on great shows, with well thought out line-ups, with good bands, and not leave the audience or the bands feeling ripped off.

The all-dayer was at The Krankenhouse, a massive squat in Crouch End. The first half of the gig was outside, and the second half was moved inside. Mad props to Julie R. Kane (flickr.com/fstopqueen) for letting me post her photos.

The fulang opened the festival. We were hungover as fuck beforehand, and felt ace after playing. I love music.

One Man Team Dance played in-between the bands in various locations around the squat. BTW this shitty photo is from me.

Silent Front. These guys have been playing in London for years and seriously rule.

November Fleet. I hadn't heard these guys before but they were really bloody good.

Cherry But No Cake. These guys are the nicest guys in the "music industry" I've met in London. They also play in a pretty classic band.

SCUL HAZZARDs. These guys are probably my favourite grassroots band. They're from Australia, and sound like the Pixies crossed with Future Of The Left or something.

Another review

Fulangchangandi got another favorable review today. Freakin' brilliant.

Check it.

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